Hannily Ever After
by T3liz
Summary: Hannily fanfic in progress... give it a chance! Hanna has always been there for Emily, and when it's time for Emily to help Hanna out she is having a hard time keeping her unspoken feelings to herself. Will Emily tell Hanna how she feels? How will Hanna react? How will the girls react? Will everything change? What will A have to say about all of this? Better read to find out (;
1. Chapter 1

_**Emily**_

It was 5 o'clock in the morning when I received an "SOS" text from Hanna. I hadn't been I hadn't been asleep for long, but I was exhausted from swim practice. I considered staying in bed and pretending I didn't hear my phone go off... but that wasn't right. I knew I had to get up and find out what was the matter.

Hanna meant a lot to me. she was the one who had been there for me day and night after Maya died. She was and amazing friend, and she always had been. She helped me move on with my life. However, there is a small problem with that: I'm afraid I might have moved on to Hanna.

Of course Hanna doesn't know that. I could never tell her how perfect I thought she was. How funny she was even when she didn't try.. How I spent my time thinking of things to say to make her laugh because her smile lit up my day.. How when she hugged me I never wanted to ever let go.. She could never know how I felt; it could ruin everything.

Plus, Hanna had Caleb, her boyfriend for about a year now. He had moved from Rosewood to Ravenswood recently. Hanna didn't really say why he had to move exactly, but I could tell she was pretty upset. Don't get me wrong, I liked Caleb. He was a good guy and he was great to Hanna, but when I saw them together being all cute and couple-like I couldn't help but get jealous.

When I arrived at Hanna's house, the front door was wide open. I took the keys out of the ignition and, because something just doesn't feel right, I locked my car. I placed the jagged end of one key in between my ring and middle fingers, just in case. I creeped up to the front door.

"Hanna?" I called.

Hanna stepped out from inside of the kitchen. It's obvious that she had been crying. I felt my keys fall to the ground as I rushed to comfort her.

"Hanna," I said sympathetically, pulling her into a hug. "Are you alright?"

I felt her nod against my neck, and I loosened my arms around her to let her go. She tightened her grip, sobbing on my shoulder. I don't know what to do.. If I knew why she was upset I might be able to make her feel better, but I didn't want to upset her anymore by asking. I pull away from the hug.

"Hanna," I said. I gently tilted her chin so she would look me in the eyes. "We don't have to talk about it, but I'm here for you. Give me just a second."

I walked over to the front door and closed it. Then I grabbed her hand and led her up the stairs and into her bedroom. We laid side by side on her bed and I stayed quiet as she picked up where she left off. It hurts me see her like this. I just wanted to make it all better, whatever "it" was.

Hanna's crying quieted as she slowly calmed herself down. She slid her hand over mine and our fingers intertwined. "I love you, Em." she proclaimed.

Now, I'm not delusional. I know that she meant that she loved me as a friend. Of course she couldn't possibly have meant anything else. I was sure she didn't feel the same way I felt. Still, I couldn't stop the butterflies in my stomach from going wild.

She wrapped her arms around my arm and rested her head on my pillow.

"Caleb broke up with me," Hanna whispered. "He came into town because he wanted to tell me face to face. He said he wanted to make sure that I understood that it wasn't personal, and that it was for the best right now."

Hanna took a shaky breath and let it out with a small whimper, like it physically hurt to tell me this. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her in tight. She needed to be comforted and I needed her to be okay. I couldn't be happy that her and Caleb were over if it meant that Hanna was hurting.

"Hanna," I began. I looked at her head laying on the pillow beside mine. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was steady; she was asleep. "I love you, too." I finish. I closed my eyes and easily fell asleep with her in my arms.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hanna**

I will never forget the fear that I felt the night that Maya St. Germain was murdered. It was unexpected, and amost just... unreal.

It sounds terrible to say it out loud, but the close-to-death feeling was becoming all too familiar to my friends and I. First, our best friend, Alison, the one who brought us all together, disappeared mysteriously the summer after our eighth grade year. Years later, her body was found, but the details of her death were still fuzzy and her murderer remains unnamed. Next, there was Ian. My friends and I witnessed his hanging firsthand, yet his body was never found. They say, "no body, no case," and this was true with Ian. No one was found guilty for this murder, either. More recently, the policeman who had relentlessly questioned us after the discovery of Ali's body, Detective Wilden, was found dead. Although someone did plead guilty to this murder, the girls and I aren't convinced the plead is truth. This leads us to believe that, once again, a murderer has been overlooked.

Now that you know some of what we have been forced to deal with the past few years, it may not be a surprise that Emily, Spencer, Aria and I don't exactly feel safe anywhere we go. We have learned over the years that it is better off to start out not trusting anyone. We don't believe things until we see them ourselves. We don't listen to rumors until we hear them from the primary source.

Our lack of trust doesn't all lead back to the deaths formerly mentioned, believe it or not. Actually, the majority of our issues as a group, and as individuals as well, can be traced back to an anonymous, omnipresent person -or, perhaps, _people_- who seemed to have seen and heard everything there was to see and hear and proceeded to hold our secrets against us. This all-powerful bully went by the initial "A"... "A" for "anonymous". "A" for "asshole". "A" for "absolutely awful"... No one really knew. What we did know, though, was that ever since Maya had been gone A had been "A" for absent. I wasn't sure if A was spending this break plotting some new evil scheme to thrust upon us when he/she popped back into our lives, or if Maya's death had caught them off guard just as much as it had everyone else. Either way, I was thankful for the break. I didn't want to question it too much. It seemed that the same went for the others since no one had breathed a word about A in months.

I sat up in my bed. Emily was gone, most likely either to work or swim practice. The cafe where she worked and the pool where she practiced were basically where she lived. Emily was such a hardworker. Which would be why she was so amazing at everything she did. I had always admired Emily for the way she would set her mind on something and leap over every obstacle in her way with ease to acheive her goal. She truly was amazing.

It was eleven o'clock in the morning. In other words, it was far too early to be getting up on Christmas break. I had decided, though, that I might actually leave the house today to take a little breather after last night with Caleb... I just needed him off of my mind. Maybe he was right, maybe it was for the best right then, but I had made up my mind that one night of crying was already too many tears.

If my mother was here she would be checking my temperature right now. "Hanna, are you feeling alright? Do you realize what time it is?" She's not used to me waking up before noon at the earliest on breaks. I could hardly wait for her to be back from her meeting in New York. She would be telling corny jokes right now trying to make me smile and sahe never fails at that, but today, even without her, I had to be okay. For me.

I walked over to my closet and started to pick out my outfit of the day. I reached for the top of my closet to grab my new Michael Khors scarf my dad had sent me early for Christmas. I tried not to dwell on the fact that my psycho-bitch of a stepsister most likely picked it out as I yanked it off of the shelf. To my surprise, it didn't come down alone.

A small container about the size of a cereal box fell to the floor. The box was a shiny metal. On the side that was face up, in small, jagged, scratched-on-with-something-sharp letters it read "HANNA". I pushed it with my foot, and then flipped it over three times before I decided it was safe to pick it up. Who would send me a metal box that was amaturely engraved with my name and otherwise unmarked? It seemed too much like A's doing for me. I picked up the phone and dialed Spencer's number.

I met Spencer and Aria at Aria's place. It was now 5 o'clock and Emily would be at work until midnight. I didn't really understand her on the phone, it was sort of loud, but it seemed like she had a lot of people to tend to..poor thing.

"So.. what is it?" Aria asked. As she spoke, she poked it with a paintbrush she had laying on her bedside table.

"Aria, the box won't bite," I said. "I didn't want to open it alone.. It seemed too much like.." I trailed off. I know it sounds stupid, but I didn't want to be the first to bring up A. It was like A was invisible because we pretended to forget, and as long as no one spoke the name it would stay away. Obviously that most likely wasn't the case.

"Han," Spencer began. "If the box won't bite, then why don't you stick your hand in its mouth? Let's open this baby up."

"Yeah, it doesn't matter when we open it. Whatever is on the inside will stay the same." Aria added matter-of-factly.

I grabbed the paintbrush that Aria was still holding on to. She raised and eyebrow and I pretended not to notice. I wedged the brush between the corner of the lid and the box and flipped the lid backward. The smell of burnt hair and something I didn't recognise filled the room at once.

Aria began coughing and Spencer got up to open a window, but I was glued to my spot on the bed. In the box layed a rather large dead mouse who had obviously been burnt to a crisp. I felt a lump in my throat begin to rise. I felt my anxiety level elevate. I felt my jaw drop as I stared at something that I had hoped I wouldn't see again. I was looking at a message from A. But what did it mean?

Suddenly, Aria's phone rang and broke the silence. Spencer and I held our breath because we knew how this usually went.

Aria shook her head. "It's Mrs. Fields," she said.

Why would Emily's mom be calling us right now? By the time we opened the box it was already ten o'clock at night. Shouldn't she be asleep?

"Hello? Pam?" Aria answered. I could hear some mumbles on the other side of the line.. It sounded like she was crying.

"We're on our way." Aria hung up the phone. "There's been an accident. Emily is on her way to the emergency room. All she said was get there, and get there fast."


	3. Chapter 3

**Emily**

I knew better than to listen to A... everyone did. Regardless, it generally always happened the same way: A would find something they needed you to do for them, and they would hold something over you until it was done.

I didn't know Kate Randall, Hanna's step-sister, very well. I had met her when she moved to our school, but she didn't stay long. When she had been in Rosewood, she didn't come across as the kind of person I would want to spend much time with. At first she seemed nice enough. She smiled when we made eye contact and came off as polite, but the more attention I paid her the more I could tell something was off. When I took a step back and really thought about the way she acted, I could read her like a book.

Her smile hid secrets. Secrets of her own, and secrets she could tell to ruin other people without batting an eye. Her eyes held pain. She had experienced things that no one as young as her should've ever witnessed or endured. The way she stood, I could tell she had her walls bulit high, most likely from having them torn down before. I could read her because all of these traits were so familiar. She had Alison's smile, her eyes, and her stance.

This scared me. I was nervous to be in the same room as Kate. She looked at me like she could read my mind, like she knew things about me I didn't even know. She looked at me like Ali used to look at me. I could suddenly see why Hanna insisted on referring to her as her "psycho-bitch step-sis". She couldn't be trusted.

I was on my way to work that morning, and as I was getting out of my car someone bumped into me from behind and knocked me to the ground. When I hit the ground, I felt lightheaded. I tried to shake the feeling by shaking my head.

"I'm sor-Emily?" A familiar voice said. I pushed myself off of the ground and stared into the eyes of none other than the formerly mentioned Kate Randall.

"Kate? What are you..? Does Hanna know you're here?" I asked, completely caught off guard. All of a sudden all I could think about was how upset Hanna was last night and how Kate being in town wouldn't make her feel any better.

"No, and she won't find out, either." Kate almost whispered. She grabbed my wrist tight and pulled me into the small alley between the cafe where I worked and the bookstore next door. "You can _not_ tell Hanna I'm here, Emily. I'm serious. You can't tell anyone." She explained. "We will leave here, walk our separate ways, and you will pretend you haven't seen me in Rosewood since I left Rosewood High. Got it?"

"I tell Hanna everything," I said. Well... not everything... "What makes you think that I'm just going to do exactly as you say, no questions asked? It's not like I owe you any favors."

I actually wasn't planning on bringing this up to Hanna anytime soon. I really hated seeing her upset, and now wasn't a good time for Kate to come back into her life. However, the fact that Kate thought she could just order me around was irritating me to no end.

Kate pursed her lips and tightened her grip on my wrist. My hand went cold.

"I didn't want to have to do this," she said. She pulled an envelope out of the tote that was hanging off of her shoulder and pulled out some papers from inside. No, not papers.. Pictures. Pictures of - Oh my God.

On that paper was a moment captured that I had put in the back of my mind and pretended never happened. I had actually spent so much time telling myself it wasn't real that if I was asked I could say, and honestly believe, that it was just a bad dream...but here in front of me was undeniable evidence that it _was_ real. Evidence that could put me at the top of a murder suspect list.

"Shit," I said. It was all I could manage to spit out of my mouth. I just stood there dumbfounded, mouth agape, staring at this picture.

"Em, I'm confused... Well, I guess you are too, huh?" Kate giggled. "...But I thought you were into girls."

"He...He was drunk. He felt bad because he had just found out about Maya... He was just trying to make me feel better." It was the truth.

Detective Wilden showed up at my house at about midnight the night Maya's body was found. He had been off duty that night, but he said he wanted to make sure I was okay. I could smell the alcohol on his breath the minute he stepped on my front porch. I had been sitting on the swing for hours just trying to wrap my head around things. He stumbled from one end of the porch over to me and plopped his unsteady self down right beside me. I remember him apologizing over and over, and I remember asking him to stop because apologies were all I had heard all night. Apologies weren't bringing my Maya back. I felt him looking at me, but I didn't turn to face him. Soon, he put his hands on my cheeks and pulled me in to kiss him. I didn't stop him. I let him kiss me because I felt the passion behind it, wether it was because he was drunk or not. The only emotion I had recieved from anyone else in a while was pity and sorrow. It felt nice to feel something different, even if I wasn't really a fan of who I was recieving the kiss from. If I closed my eyes really really tight and imagined I was someplace else, I could almost pretend I was kissing Maya one last time...

"I couldn't care less what it was Emily, all I care about is you keeping your pretty little mouth shut." Kate snapped, pulling me back to the present. "Now, I have plenty of copies of this. I wonder what the police would think if they learned that you've withheld some major information you had on Wilden: your relationship."

"Kate you know its not-"

"I told you. I don't care what it is. I care what it will look like to the police."

"I won't say anything. Please let it go."

"Sounds like a deal." she said. With a flick of her hair, she headed out of the alley.

I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath that I had been holding. When I opened my eyes, she was gone. I still held the blackmail in my hand. I flipped it over, not wanting to look at it a second longer, only to find a note on the back written with black marker.

**Want these problems gone once and for all? No more blackmail and no more secrets? I can make it happen. One final deal, that's all it will take. Meet me at the greenhouses beside Rosewood Park tonight at 9. **

**Kiss Kiss, -A**

Of course I knew not to trust A, everyone knew that, but this didn't sound so bad. We hadn't heard from A in so long. Maybe they were getting tired of playing this game. _One final deal._.. One last encounter with this monster and no more blackmail or secrets? I thought I might as well take my chances tonight at the greenhouses. I mean, what did I really have to lose?

I thought of Aria, Spencer, and Hanna. Had they recieved this offer, too? I especially thought of Hanna. If she had gotten this message, would she have told me? Would she try to face A by herself? I didn't like this idea one bit. The fact that Hanna might be going to the greenhouses tonight as well just reinforced my decision. I was going, and that was final.

I called into work and told them I wasn't feeling well. I didn't give them much notice but I didn't have much notice either. I went back home and turned my TV on really loud so that it sounded like I was surrounded by a ton of people, and I called Hanna. It was about 2 pm when I called. I made up some story about having to work late because we had some malfunction with a coffee machine and I told her I wouldn't be off until midnight. I wasn't sure when this exchange with A would be over.

When I pulled up to the park, it was 8:45. I was nervous, but determined that this was going to happen. I clenched my jaw and focused on the fact that there was a possibility that all my troubles would be gone soon. A possiblity that A and I would be making a deal.

It was 9:01 when I walked up to the greenhouse. The door opened with a loud creak. The noise made me jump at first because it broke such a thick silence. I stepped inside and leaves crunched beneath my boots. It was much warmer in there than it was outside.I heard something tapping on the glass that enclosed the building. I looked down the rows of plants... Where was A?

I began walking down the aisle in front of me. Behind me, the door slammed hard. I should've known. I whipped around quickly and caught a quick glimpse of a hooded figure ducking behind one of the hundreds of plants inside the greenhouse. I felt my heart racing. What had I gotten myself into.

"I know you're in here," I said, my voice not as strong as I had hoped it would sound. "Come out so we can get this over with." I was tired of these games.

Thats when I heard a giggle. No, not a giggle, the giggle. Ali's giggle. I would recognize it anywhere. I felt a shiver begin running down my spine and my stomach went cold. The sound of Ali's bone chilling giggle echoed in my brain again and again. For what seemed like hours, my shoes weighed twenty pounds. I couldn't move. I stood there with my mouth wide open, shaking like I had seen a ghost..or, perhaps, heard one.

I hear a door shut once again from the other side of the greenhouse, but not as forcefully this time. I finally find the strength to lift my feet again, and when I did I sprinted to the door I had come in through. I pushed with everything I had in me. It wouldn't budge. I was locked in.

"No," I said aloud. "No, no, no, no, no, no... This isn't happening to me."

I ran to the other end of the greenhouse. I noticed the smell seconds after I discovered that my last hope of getting out of this house was gone. I was so rattled that I couldn't place what it was for a minute. The strong scent was unmistakable: gasoline.

I couldn't imagine why a greenhouse would ever have any gasoline inside. As if it was the universe answering my unspoken question, the leaves on the ground in front of the door I was nearest to began to glow. White, then blue, then orange. One pile of leaves at a time, the greenhouse began to light up. I backed up to the opposite wall, closed my eyes, and tried to come up with a plan. No luck.

When I opened my eyes again, the flames were a lot closer. They were maybe a yard away from me at this point. I became light headed as all I had to breathe in was smoke. I felt a heavy pressure on my chest as the room began to spin faster. I tried to take deeper breaths, but it just resulted in coughing and even more lightheadedness.

I felt myself losing control of my own body. My knees became weak and my arms wouldn't reach out to save me from the fall. I was on the ground staring out of the glass walls. I could feel the heat radiating off of the fire, burning my exposed skin.

I closed my eyes and began to accept the fact that this was it for me. I thought off all the important people in my life and said a silent prayer that they would be fine without me. My mom would be crushed, but she had my dad and together they would move on. The girls would also be devastated, but at least they had eachother. The only regret that came to mind was never telling Hanna how I felt. I had wasted so much time thinking of the bad that I never put myself out there.

I felt someone grab my ankle, and it took everything I had to look up and see who it was. When I opened my eyes, a familiar blonde was looking into them. Ali? I was slipping out of conciousness and before I closed my eyes once more I saw someone who looked identical to the girl who used to be my best friend drag me by my ankles.

"I'm looking out for you, Em."

This was the last thing I heard before my world turned dark and silent.


End file.
